How to choose the right gangway for your boat?

If you have to choose a gangway to mount on board, carefully consider how you will use your boat, because once the deck is drilled you cannot go back and a bad installation will cause you quite a few problems, especially when cruising. Together with Luigi Coretti of Adriaship , we explain what you need to know before buying a walkway. Fixed or foldable? Made of wood or metal, fiberglass or carbon? Most importantly, where and how should it be installed?

IN CRUISE BETTER FOLDABLE AND LIGHTWEIGHT
As for the types of catwalks, there are for all tastes: from the no-cost solution (often used by charter companies), the “classic” wooden plank, to the latest generation of carbon (and even fiberglass, or inflatable) ones, through steel ones with a duckboard. The popular steel and wood models have the advantage of being cheaper but their heaviness makes them more uncomfortable and cumbersome: on a cruise, especially if you are with a wife and children, a lightweight gangway might be more comfortable and easier to manage. Without going to the trouble of carbon ones (with weights of up to 3-4 kg!), you could opt for a fiberglass, collapsible solution (such as the one proposed by Slovenian Carbonautica, which we tell you about in the box at the bottom of the page, weighing just over 8 kg). Compared to the fixed gangway, which, when cruising, you will have to compulsorily attach to the stern pulpit (or sideways on the dredges, in the case of the aforementioned plank), the folding one has the advantage that it can be stowed on board inside a locker, which saves considerable space. The advice is to first check the size of your locker to avoid nasty surprises: usually the average length of the gangway is 2.30-2.40 meters, which becomes half that when folded. Also consider the width (38-40 cm is enough to ensure easy walking). It may seem obvious, but check the placement and quality of the wheels at the end of the walkway so that they do not rub on the dock once mounted. The choice of equipping the gangway with stanchions for safer ascent and descent will depend only on you: unless you are methodical and orderly on board, what will happen is that you will end up hardly ever fitting them overcome by laziness or the fact that you cannot remember where you put them. As for load capacities (you will find them indicated on the certificate of the gangway, and they are often deliberately underestimated for safety reasons) above 200 kg you can rest assured.

WHERE DO I MOUNT IT?
Once you havedetermined the type of walkway that is right for you, you need to ask yourself the most important question: where do I mount it? In this case, it becomes critical to anticipate the situations you will encounter on a cruise. The advice is to install the tumbler inside which you are going to wedge the gangway pin at half the height of the transom, so that you can cope without too much difficulty with situations where, for example, you will have water that is too low or high and a fixed pontoon and the poor positioning of the tumbler can in too high gangway tilts. For those who want to be on the safe side, a good solution is to equip themselves with two tumblers, at two different heights (one can possibly be placed on the folding swim platform, if your boat is equipped with one).

Pmake your time and reason carefully. In winter, will you cover the boat with a tarp? Then make sure to place the glass so that it is always easily accessible. Also take into account the tender factor (side photo): if you have a large-sized boat, it may be that when mooring, if you hold it at the stern, the gangway will not be able to touch the ground, so don’t go drilling into the deck too “forward.” To overcome this problem, there are also cantilevered tumblers, inclined 90°, that can be installed directly on the transom, gaining valuable inches. Last but not least, the tread: make sure that if the gangway ends at the transom, it does not exceed 30-32 cm (usually the standard size of a step) so that you can always leap aboard easily.

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HOW TO INSTALL THE GLASS
We have left out other methods of installing the gangway (which perhaps involve counterplates and intermediate layers of plywood to protect the fiberglass) because the tumbler is the most straightforward system by working stressed solely by the weight force from above of the gangway pin (so you will only have to drill holes in the boat and screw it in). Both Teflon and steel ones are excellent (the latter are not recommended only for the few who have a metal hull). The important thing is not to skimp on silicone while sealing to prevent future water seepage (especially if you go to work on teak); don’t be afraid to overdo it to the point that tightening the screws will cause the silicone to leak out. You will later take care of removing the excess.